IV.—Anglo-Saxon Finds near Rainham, Essex, with a Study of Glass Drinking-horns

Vera I. Evison

doi:10.1017/S0261340900003696

IV.—Anglo-Saxon Finds near Rainham, Essex, with a Study of Glass Drinking-horns

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2011

Vera I. Evison

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The various objects listed below were found in the course of commercial digging for sand and gravel in the large pit about half-way between Rainham and Up-minister in Essex (see figs, 1 and 2), on the opposite side of the road to Gerpins Farm. In 1937 Mr. George Carter, a local Public Health official, heard that archaeological finds were being made, and purchased a number of objects from the workmen. He brought these to the attention of Mr. (now Sir Thomas) Kendrick at the British Museum, who identified the objects and arranged for an exhibition of the collection at the Museum. At this time, too, Sir Thomas took photographs, some of which are published here. It is solely to this prompt and accurate recording that we owe our knowledge of the Bronze Age beaker and the gold coin pendant, for these are now missing. Mr. Carter presented the collection to the Borough of Dagenham, to be kept in the museum of local history being assembled at Valence House. There is no record of the gold pendant ever being housed there, however, and the present Librarian, Mr. J. O';Leary, has no knowledge of it. The Bronze Age beaker was stolen. The collection is otherwise intact, with the exception of a certain amount of deterioration in the condition of some of the iron objects.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 96 , 1955 , pp. 159 - 195

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900003696 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1955

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^{page 159 note 1} O.S. 1/25000, National Grid Sheet 51/58, 554840.

^{page 159 note 2} Report in The Times, 24th May 1937.

^{page 159 note 3} Plaster casts were made of both sides of the pendant, and these are kept in the Coins and Medals Department of the British Museum.

Replicas of two of the pots, the spindle-whorls, the square-headed brooch, and coin pendant were made in 1937, and are housed in Southend Museum.

^{page 160 note 1} Letter from Mr. Carter to Sir Thomas Kendrick, 14th Jan. 1937.

^{page 162 note 1} Braids form part of the decoration on some bracteate loops.

^{page 162 note 2} Grierson, P., ‘The Canterbury (St. Martin's) Hoard of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon coin ornaments’, British Numismatic Journal, vol. xxvii, 3rd series, vol. vii, pt. i (1952), pl. VI, 5Google Scholar. (The loop is not visible in this photograph.) Dr. Grierson considers the date of deposition of the grave to be between A.D. 570 and 590, most likely about 580.

^{page 162 note 3} Bruce-Mitford, R. L. S., ‘The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial’, Proc. Suffolk Inst. Arch, xxv, pt. i (1949), p. 37Google Scholar, and pl. III c.

^{page 162 note 4} British Museum Anglo-Saxon Guide, pl. IV, 1.

^{page 163 note 1} Boeles, P. C. J. A., Friesland tot de elfde eeuw (1951), pl. XLI, 6.Google Scholar

^{page 163 note 2} Leeds, E. T., Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology, pl. xxx d.Google Scholar

^{page 163 note 3} Rigold, S. E., ‘An Imperial coinage in Southern Gaul in the 6th and 7th centuries?’, Num. Chron. 6th ser. xiv.Google Scholar

^{page 164 note 1} Leeds, E. T., A Corpus of Early Anglo-Saxon Great Square-headed Brooches, p. 91.Google Scholar

^{page 164 note 2} Human legs do occur in both English and Scandinavian zoomorphic designs, see Holmqvist, W., ‘Dryckeshornen från Söderby-Karl’, Fornvännen, h. 1–2 (1951), p. 57Google Scholar. n. 37.

^{page 165 note 1} Leeds, E. T., ‘The Distribution of the Angles and Saxons archaeologically considered’, Archaeologia, xci.Google Scholar

^{page 165 note 2} Fox, C., Archaeology of the Cambridge Region, pl. XXXIII, 5.Google Scholar

^{page 165 note 3} Åberg, N., The Anglo-Saxons in England, p. 42.Google Scholar

^{page 165 note 4} London in Roman Times, London Museum catalogue, p. 108 and fig. 33; A Guide to the Antiquities of Roman Britain, British Museum, p. 95, figs. 117 and 118.

^{page 167 note 1} T. C. Lethbridge, Recent Excavations in Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, fig. I. A. 2.

^{page 168 note 1} V.C.H. Cambs. i, pl. I b.

^{page 168 note 2} Maryon, H., ‘A Sword of the Nydam type from Ely Fields Farm, near Ely, Cambridge’, Camb. Ant. Soc. Proc. xli. 76.Google Scholar

^{page 168 note 3} Bruce-Mitford, R. L. S., ‘The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial’, Proc. Suff. Inst. of Arch, xxv, pt. i (1949), p. 68Google Scholar.

^{page 168 note 4} A. France-Lanord, ‘La fabrication des épées damassées aux époques merovingienne et carolingienne’, Pays gaumats, 10^e année, Nos. 1–2–3, 1949

^{page 168 note 5} The figures show the strips in groups of three for clarity: the actual groups are not distinguishable on the radiographs.

^{page 170 note 1} B. Faussett, Inventorium Sepulchrale, 93.

^{page 170 note 2} Brown, Baldwin, Arts in Early England, iv, pl. xcvi, 1, and p. 411.Google Scholar

^{page 171 note 1} In the British Museum.

^{page 171 note 2} Lethbridge, T. C., A Cemetery at Lackford, Suffolk, fig. 5, No. 49. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 171 note 3} Cf. Moreau, F., Collection Caranda, pl. xxxiv, 23Google Scholar, and Neville, R. C., Saxon Obsequies, pl. 21. 96.Google Scholar

^{page 171 note 4} The jagged effect is caused by severance of the vessel at the neck by application of some cool agent. A smooth finish is effected by reheating, but in the late Roman period some vessels were left at this stage and retained sharp snapped-off rims which are hardly inviting on a drinking-glass. A bevelled but still sharp rim may sometimes have been produced by grinding. W. Haberey, ‘Spätantike Gläser aus Gräbern von Mayen’, Bonner Jahr at bücher, Heft 147, Taf. 35, Abb. 1, S. 255.

^{page 172 note 1} Salin, E., Le haul moyen-âge en Lorraine d'après le mobilier funéraire, 1939, p. 194Google Scholar; Feytmans, G. Faider, ‘Les verreries des époques romaine et mérovingienne’, Revue Beige d'Archérsquo;ologie et d'Histoire de l'Art, x, 1940, No. 4, p. 4Google Scholar; Chambon, R. and Arbman, H., ‘Deux Fours a verre d'époque mérovingienne â Macquenoise (Belgique)’, Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet i Lund, Arsberättelse, 1951–1952, p. 231Google Scholar; Thorpe, W. A., English Glass (1949), p. 67.Google Scholar

^{page 172 note 2} Arbman, H., Schweden und das Karolingische Reich, p. 251Google Scholar, et. seq.

^{page 172 note 3} Harden, D. B., ‘Glass Vessels in Anglo-Saxon Britain’, The Archaeological News Letter, July 1950, iii, No. 2Google Scholar; also mentioned by Thorpe, W. A., op. cit., p. 63.Google Scholar

^{page 172 note 4} Bjørn, A., ‘Bronsekar og Glass begre fra Folkevand-ringstiden’, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskabs Skrifter, 1929.Google Scholar

^{page 172 note 5} France-Lanord, op. cit.

^{page 176 note 1} e.g. London: Guildhall Museum Publications: Finds in Roman London 1949–52, pp. 3–4, pl. iii, associated finds pl. 11 and iv, and a glass in Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, presumably found in Holland. The tip is missing from these two, but their identification as rhytons is made certain by the established first-century date of the Guild-hall glass and comparison with a complete vessel of similar metal and decoration in the British Museum, Reg. No. 1912 11–13 i, recorded as coming from Syria,

^{page 176 note 2} Dated examples are the London one above and another from Mainz: L. Lindenschmidt, ‘Vermehrung der Sammlungen 1904/5’, Mainzer Zeitschrift, Jahrgang i, 1906, S. 71, Taf. v b, 8.

^{page 178 note 1} Cf. O. Almgren, Studien über nordeuropäische Fibel-formen, Type VII, 220.

^{page 179 note 1} O. Almgren, op. cit., fig. 234.

^{page 179 note 2} Morin-Jean, , La verrerie en Gaule sous l'Empire romain, 1913, p. 96.Google Scholar

^{page 180 note 1} Prof. Eggers, H. G., Der römische Import im freien Germanien (1951), pp. 61–2Google Scholar, assigns the Österhvarf horn to the first part of the late Roman period, and points out its resemblance to a group of foot-beakers with snake-thread decoration. On the grounds of their eastern distribution and the absence of the type in the western empire, he considers they must have been produced at some eastern centre, and imported to the north via the Dniester, San, and Vistula.

^{page 180 note 2} W. Haberey, ‘Spätantike Gläser aus Grabern von Mayen’, Bonner Jahrbücher, Heft 147, Taf. 37, Abb. 2.

^{page 180 note 3} Annales de la Société archéologique de Namur, 5. 6 (1859–60), pp. 352, 372.

^{page 180 note 4} According to Dr. Haberey, this horn was found in a late Roman grave with two late fourth-century glass beakers,

^{page 180 note 5} Dr. Norling-Christensen suggests that imported glass horns were used as models by Germanic metal workers; the segmentation of the Gallehus gold horns derived from a glass horn of the Varhaug type, and the segmented bronze tip fittings derived from the Aachen type: Viking xiii, pp. 8–9.

^{page 181 note 1} e.g. Norske Fortidsmindesmœrkers Bevaring, Aarsberetninger, 1881, Taf. 11, 9, and A. Bjorn, op. cit., fig. 11, p. 21. For another pottery copy see For. til N.F.B. Aarsberetninger, 1882, Taf. I, 7.

^{page 181 note 2} Hougen, B., Snartemo Funnene, pl. v, 1 and 2, and pp. 28–30.Google Scholar

^{page 181 note 3} e.g. in Grave 19 at Gotterbarmweg: Emil Vogt, ‘Das alamannische Gräberfeld am alten Gotterbarmweg in Basel’, Anzeiger für Schweizerische Altertumskunde, xxxii, 1930, pp. 145–64, Taf. x, 6 and 7. For the dating and distribution of this type of sword see E. Behmer, Das zweischneidige Schwert, 1939, and K. Böhner, ‘DasLangschwert des Frankenkönigs Childerich’, Bonner Jahrbücher, 148, p. 218. The finds associated with this Wiesbaden horn are listed in A. V. Cohausen, Fükrer durch das Alterthums-Museum zu Wiesbaden (1888), S. 150, with the provenance of Igstadt. A strap slide, probably the same one, is illustrated by L. Lindenschmidt, Handbuch der Deutschen Alterthumskunde, fig. 157, with the provenance ‘Erbenheim bei Wiesbaden!’.

^{page 181 note 4} Viking, xiii, pl. iii.

^{page 182 note 1} A. Steeger, ‘Neue Funde aus germ. Gräbern des 4. Jahrh. in Krefeld-Gellep’, Veröffentlichungen des Heimathauses des Niederrheins in Krefeld, Nr. 17, p. 75. The report on this cemetery has not yet been published.

^{page 182 note 2} Bonner Jahrbücher, Heft 147, Taf. 37, 1.

^{page 182 note 3} W. v. Pfeffer, ‘Zur Typologie merovingerzeitlicher Gläser mit Fadenverzierung’, Festschrift des Römisch- Germanischen Zentralmuseutn in Mainz zur Feier seines hundertjährigen Bestehens, 1952, Band iii, p. 147.

^{page 182 note 4} e.g. Baldwin Brown, The Arts in Early England, iv, pl. cxxi, 3, 5. cf. F. Rademacher, ‘Frankische Gläser aus dem Rheinland’, Bonner Jahrbücher, Heft 147, S. 324, Taf. 67: in the upper illustration it may be clearly seen how the lower zone of trails were drawn a second time towards the base, while the upper zone remains as a garland, drawn only towards the rim. The whole of the seines body was presumably reheated and twisted to achieve the swirl.

^{page 183 note 1} Krefeld-Gellep and Varhaug (pl. LXVII, a.)

^{page 183 note 2} Nos. i and 25, (pl. LXIX, b, e and pl. LXVII, c.)

^{page 184 note 1} F. Rademacher, op. cit., S. 336.

^{page 184 note 2} See distribution maps of glasses with marvered and unmarvered trail decoration, W. v. Pfeffer, op. cit., Abb. 4 and 5.

^{page 184 note 3} F. Rademacher, op. cit., S. 324. One of the glass fragments from the site of a Merovingian glass oven in Belgium was a green bell-beaker with white combed trails: H. Arbman, 1951–2, op. cit., fig. 3, Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

^{page 185 note 1} W. v. Pfeffer, op. cit., p. 155.

^{page 185 note 2} F. Fremersdorf, Goldschtnuck der Völkerwanderungs-zeit, Ausstellung der Sammlung Diergardt, Köln, 1953, Taf. 36, and Moreau, Album Caranda, N.S., pl. 53.

^{page 185 note 3} H. Rupp, Die Herkunft der Zelleneinlage, p. 70.

^{page 185 note 4} H. Kühn, Die germanischen Bügelfibeln, S. 252, Taf. 130, 1.

^{page 186 note 1} The photograph, E. Salin, op. cit., fig. 3, seems to show that the whole of the original length of the vessel is represented.

^{page 186 note 2} W. v. Pfeffer, op. cit., p. 155.

^{page 187 note 1} e.g. B. Nerman, Die Völkerwanderungszeit Gotlands (1935), Taf. 23, 281 and 282; Taf 24.

^{page 187 note 2} A. BjØrn, op. cit. (In this article the thinner glasses like the Kempston cone beaker are not differentiated from the thicker Gotland type.)

^{page 188 note 1} Barrière-Flavy, C., Les Arts industriels des peoples barbares de la Gaule (1901)Google Scholar, pl. D, 8.

^{page 188 note 2} Werner, J., Münzdatierte Austrasische Grabfunde (1935). PP. 75–76Google Scholar.

^{page 189 note 1} G. Ekholm, ‘Romerska Glasvaror i Skandinavien’, Fornvännen, 1937, fig. 13, p. 77.

^{page 189 note 2} e.g. H. Arbman, Birka I, Die Gräber, Taf. 194, 1 a and 1 b.

^{page 189 note 3} D. B. Harden, ‘Glass beaker from Colchester Castle’, Antiq. Journ. xxx, 70, pl. xv, b and fig. 1.

^{page 189 note 4} Mon. Ant. xxv, p. 173, fig. 20.

^{page 189 note 5} See J. Werner, ‘Eine nordfranzösische Tierfibel von Basel (Bernerring)’, Ur-Schweiz, Jahrgang xiii, Nr. 4, pp. 60–61.

^{page 189 note 6} C. J. Lamm, Mittelalterliche Gläser, Taf. 29, 8, 30, 16, and 32, 10.

^{page 190 note 1} D. B. Harden, 1950, op. cit. ^{page 191 note 1}Kisa, Das Glas im Alterthume, Teil iii, Abb. 388.

^{page 191 note 2} Broomfield, V.C.H. Essex i, fig. 19; Aylesford, Kent, W. A. Thorpe, op. cit., pl. vii, b; Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, J. Y. Akerman, Remains of Pagan Saxondom, pl. VI, 3 and 4; Løland, Vest-Agder, Norway, Oslo Universitets Oldsakssamling, No. C. 19362.

^{page 191 note 3} British Museum Anglo-Saxon Guide, fig. 54, c. Another example is the blue drinking-vessel of squat bottle shape found in a well at Pagan's Hill, Somerset; photograph in The Times, 3rd Dec. 1952.

^{page 191 note 4} W. A. Thorpe, op. cit., pl. xiii, b.

^{page 191 note 5} F. Rademacher, op. cit., Taf. 46, 1.

^{page 191 note 6} H. Stolpe and T. J. Arne, La Nécropole de Vendel, pl. xxxix, 16.

^{page 191 note 7} According to various reports (Colchester Museum Report, 1929, p. 29, fig. 1; W. A. Thorpe, op. cit., p. 55, note 1; D. B. Harden, op. cit., fig. 1) a third glass vessel, a stemmed beaker, is reputed to have been found at Rainham. This glass form was produced in the late Roman period, but has been found in association with very early Anglo-Saxon material. The Essex specimen, however, was found about two and a half miles west of Gerpins Farm, not in Rainham but in Hornchurch parish, in a Roman stone coffin containing two skeletons lying head to feet, together with a bronze coin, probably of Tetricus II (267–73). Near the coffin were a fourth-century pottery and beaker. It is necessary to make clear that the Hornchurch Roman burial has no connexion with the Rainham cemetery here discussed.

^{page 192 note 1} English Place-name Society, Essex, xxii and xxv, and distribution map.

^{page 193 note 1} Nennius, Historia Brittonum, trans. Old English Chronicles, ed. J. A. Giles, p. 406.

^{page 193 note 2} J. K. Wallenberg, Place-names of Kent, 261.

^{page 193 note 3} O. E. Ekwall, English Place-names in -ing, 129. This verb seems to occur once only in O.E., in the Gnomic Verses of the Exeter Book: see B. C. Williams, Gnomic Poetry in Anglo-Saxon, p. 123, line 119 and note, p. 140.

^{page 193 note 4} *Roginga ham would become *Roegingi ham by i-mutation, then later Reynham (1240), and so the modern Rainham.

^{page 193 note 5} Ekwall, op. cit. 155.

^{page 193 note 6} C. Fox, Archaeology of the Cambridge Region, p. 285.

^{page 193 note 7} e.g. from Gt. Stambridge in the Southend Museum.

^{page 194 note 1} Antiq. Journ. x. 387, fig. 1.

^{page 194 note 2} E. T. Leeds, Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology, pl. XXVII, Grave Group 31; also at Wieuwerd, , Bonner Jahrbucher, 43 (1867), Taf. VI, 10Google Scholar.

^{page 194 note 3} Antiq. Journ. xi, pl. XL.

^{page 194 note 4} I am grateful to Mr. Cyril Hart for bringing to my notice a similar saucer brooch found in Whalebone Lane, Dagenham. A cast is in the possession of Colchester Museum, but the whereabouts of the original is unknown,

^{page 194 note 5} Pollitt, W., ‘The Roman and Saxon Settlements, Southend-on-Sea’, Southend-on-Sea Ant. & Hist. Soc. Trans., vol. i, pt. ii, 93–141Google Scholar.

^{page 194 note 6} Antiq. Journ. xi, 61, fig. 2.

^{page 194 note 7} Antiq. Journ. iv, fig. 8.

^{page 194 note 8} Antiq. Journ. x, 387, figs. 2 and 3.

^{page 194 note 9} Archaeologia, xxx, 51, pl. 1, fig. 2.

^{page 194 note 10} Cf., for instance, an example from Muids, Dépt. Eure, E. Salin, La Civilisation Mérovingienne, i, fig. 82.

^{page 194 note 11} P. Lebel, ‘Provenance et diffusion des epées da-massés’, Revue Archéologique et l'Est et du Centre-Est, tome 4, p. 149.

^{page 195 note 1} Leeds, E. T., ‘The distribution of the Angles and Saxons archaeologically considered’, Archaeologia (1945), xci, 79Google Scholar.

^{page 195 note 2} English Place-name Society, Essex, xxii.

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IV.—Anglo-Saxon Finds near Rainham, Essex, with a Study of Glass Drinking-horns

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